A baseline study of the distribution and morphology of Brassica napus L. and Brassica rapa L. in the Netherlands

Knowledge about the spread of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) populations in the Netherlands is necessary to refine the environmental risk assessment for the authorization of GM oilseed rape. Although there is currently little GM oilseed rape imported into the Netherlands, this may change in the future, as demand for oilseed rape for processing into oil increases.

The research shows that turnip mustard (Brassica rapa) occurs more often and in larger populations than oilseed rape in the Netherlands. Oilseed rape populations that are found are often small and occur in places where production, transportation and handling of oilseed rape occurs. This suggests that oilseed rape is poorly able to settle in Dutch nature. COGEM observes that this research suggests that the potential to establish feral oilseed rape populations is much smaller than previously thought.